Alfred Gooden's family says he got bruises like this on both arms while a patient at Ancora Psychiatric Hospital last year. / (FAMILY PHOTO)

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ALAN GUENTHER

STAFF WRITER

IF YOU GO

The state Assembly Human Services Committee will conduct a hearing on conditions at Ancora at 2 p.m. today on the fourth floor of the Statehouse annex in Trenton. The hearing is open to the public.

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WINSLOW — For more than 50 years, Ida and Al Gooden worried about what would happen to their mentally ill son if they could no longer care for him.

But last year, their son, Alfred Gooden — who the family says has the mind and demeanor of a 5-year-old — began to get aggressive at their Atlantic City home.

"It was like something was wrong, and he couldn't say what it was," said his nephew, Steven Gooden, 29. They tried to get a local hospital to admit Alfred, but no beds were available. So they were advised to commit him to Ancora Psychiatric Hospital in Winslow, where the mentally ill who can't afford private care go for treatment.

Within days, Ida and Al Gooden's worst nightmares came true.

"He was defecating and urinating all over himself," said Steven Gooden, who says he was shocked when he visited his 58-year-old uncle in the hospital. "His entire body almost shut down. He went in there with no serious medical issues, and they almost killed this guy."

The Goodens called police after they found deep bruises all over Alfred's arms. His medical records show that the bruises first appeared at Ancora on Nov. 14, after staff members had tried to lift him off the floor. The staff complained that he was a "dead weight" and apparently was uncooperative.

"It looked like he had been severely abused. I couldn't figure out how someone who was at a medical facility could receive that kind of bruising. It looked like he was beaten," said Steven Gooden, who is acting as a spokesman for his grandparents, who are both in their 80s.

In only 10 days at Ancora, from Nov. 7 until Nov. 17, medical records show Alfred Gooden developed pneumonia and blood clots in his lungs. On Nov. 17, he was sent to Virtua Hospital in Berlin and is currently living in a nursing home in Linwood.

"Doctors aren't sure he'll ever walk again," Steven Gooden said. He said his grandmother blames herself for trusting the state to care for her son.

Human Services spokeswoman Ellen Lovejoy declined to comment, saying the state is prohibited from discussing a patient's condition, even if the family permits it. She said she could not say if Ancora staff members involved with Alfred Gooden's treatment were disciplined.

"If there were any disciplinary actions, they didn't rise to the level of public record," Lovejoy said. "My understanding is that there were no terminations."

Hearing in Trenton today

Conditions at Ancora will be examined today in the Statehouse at a 2 p.m. hearing conducted by the Assembly Human Services Committee. The public is invited.

"I have a sense that we have an institution that seriously needs to be retooled," said Assemblywoman Sheila Y. Oliver, D-Essex, chairwoman of the committee. "I'm not interested in witch hunting, but I hope the hearing we conduct will peel back some of the layers of what has happened."

Some changes could be made quickly, Oliver said, such as requiring drug testing and criminal background checks for all employees.

The public hearing was announced after a series of stories in the Asbury Park Press detailed substandard conditions at the state's largest psychiatric hospital, located in the Pinelands of Camden County.

The Press reported that 19 psychiatrists have been beaten up in Ancora during the last seven years, with many suffering serious injuries requiring hospitalization. Ancora reported 1,212 assaults in 2006, with most involving fights between patients and staff members.

Assistant Human Services Commissioner Kevin Martone has talked about "changing the culture" at the overcrowded facility. The patient population increased at Ancora from the 500s to more than 750 patients after the state closed the Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital 10 years ago.

New role for UMDNJ?

One of the changes being debated is whether the state will hire the University of Medicine and Dentistry to help run Ancora and train the staff.

UMDNJ is already training some staff members, said Phil Lubitz, spokesman for the New Jersey chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

"I think it would be a good idea," for UMDNJ to run the hospital, Lubitz said. He said UMDNJ is already doing a good job of providing health care at the state's prisons.

"This could be a good compromise," he said, "to bring in a fresh organization with strong clinical experience."

Lubitz acknowledged that, as an institution, UMDNJ has had problems with fraud and corruption. The dean at the UMDNJ's Stratford campus is under criminal indictment for tampering with records and receiving inappropriate salary and gifts.

And state Sen. Wayne R. Bryant, D-Camden, is also under indictment for allegedly accepting a no-show job from UMDNJ.

But UMDNJ's behavioral health care division is a separate branch that is "for the most part, free of some of the political cronyism that was such a problem with UMDNJ" in Camden County, Lubitz said.

Lovejoy declined to say whether talks were underway with UMDNJ to run the hospital.

"It would be inappropriate to discuss at this time," Lovejoy said. She pointed out that Martone has "previously discussed the need for changes."

Looking for answers

Camden County Assembly members Louis Greenwald of Voorhees and Pamela Lampitt of Cherry Hill have asked to join today's hearings. Greenwald, as chairman of the budget committee, said he wants to see what can be done to provide "basic human dignity" for the hospital's patients.

Steven Gooden said he hopes today's hearings provide some answers.

"I would like to have someone give me an actual answer about how this could happen to my uncle. . . . I hope that someone will take a really close look at that facility and totally redo it. It's disgusting," Gooden said. "I couldn't believe they would treat anyone like that."